--- title: Germany Surrenders at Reims, May 7, 1945: A Photographer's Story description: LIFE's Ralph Morse was one of the few photographers present at Allied headquarters in France when Germany unconditionally surrendered. canonical: https://time.com/3876923/germany-surrenders-at-reims-may-7-1945-a-photographers-story/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-05-06T23:21:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:52.747Z og:title: Germany Surrenders at Reims, May 7, 1945: A Photographer's Story og:description: LIFE's Ralph Morse was one of the few photographers present at Allied headquarters in France when Germany unconditionally surrendered. og:url: https://time.com/3876923/germany-surrenders-at-reims-may-7-1945-a-photographers-story/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt339453eaca8e7f74/698849f1a988cadb716b1e54/16_00637534.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Reims, May 7, 1945 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Germany Surrenders at Reims, May 7, 1945: A Photographer's Story twitter:description: LIFE's Ralph Morse was one of the few photographers present at Allied headquarters in France when Germany unconditionally surrendered. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt339453eaca8e7f74/698849f1a988cadb716b1e54/16_00637534.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Germany Surrenders at Reims, May 7, 1945: A Photographer's Story by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove May 6, 2013 11:21 PM UTC ![Eisenhower makes V with surrender pens, German and U.S. pen at right, Russian at left. With 'Ike': \[Chief of Staff Lieut. General Bedell\] Smith, Secretary Kay Summersby, \[RAF's Arthur\] Tedder.](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt339453eaca8e7f74/698849f1a988cadb716b1e54/16_00637534.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=3:2) "Eisenhower makes V \[for victory\] with surrender pens, German and U.S. pen at right, Russian at left. With 'Ike': \[Chief of Staff Lieut. General Bedell\] Smith, Secretary Kay Summersby, \[RAF's Arthur\] Tedder." "Eisenhower makes V \[for victory\] with surrender pens, German and U.S. pen at right, Russian at left. With 'Ike': \[Chief of Staff Lieut. General Bedell\] Smith, Secretary Kay Summersby, \[RAF's Arthur\] Tedder."Ralph Morse—Time & LIfe Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove May 6, 2013 11:21 PM UTC On a rainy Saturday night in early May, 1945, LIFE photographer Ralph Morse was working in his hotel room in Paris, writing captions for a series of photos he’d made a few days earlier, when a U.S. Army press information officer knocked on his door. “Grab your cameras,” the PIO said. “Let’s go.” “I have to finish up these captions,” Morse protested. “This is more important,” the press officer said. Something in his manner told Morse that “important” might be an understatement. Dressed in his correspondents’ uniform, Morse grabbed his cameras and his raincoat and went down to the street in front of the hotel. “There was a big black Cadillac there, and four or five Jeeps,” Morse recently told LIFE.com, recalling that long-ago night. “I’d be damned if I was going to let my cameras get soaked, so I jumped into the Caddy. We started off, and right away we all knew we were headed for Reims. You could feel it.” Reims was where SHAEF — the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force — was located for the last two years of the Second World War. Roughly 90 miles northeast of Paris, the town of Reims — and, specifically, the “little red schoolhouse” where Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and his staff were headquartered — was about to enter history as the exact spot where the war in Europe would come to an end. The long-rumored German surrender, coming hard on the heels of several leading Nazi figures’ suicides, including Hitler himself, was finally at hand. And Ralph Morse, who had covered so much of the war, from Guadalcanal to the liberation of Paris in the summer of 1944, would have a front row seat. But not quite yet. “We got to the little red schoolhouse,” Morse said, “and learned that the Germans were coming to sign the surrender documents — _in about ten minutes_. We all started scrambling around, trying to get ourselves set up for the ceremony. But then it turned out there was some sort of mix-up, the Germans couldn’t sign that night after all, and the other correspondents and I were left there, waiting. “I wasn’t going to leave that place until the Germans came back and signed,” Morse remembered. _“_I was terrified I’d step out for an hour, and miss the surrender! So I stayed there at headquarters for two solid days — I slept on the the floor, on my raincoat, and ate hamburgers for every meal — and I was still there when the German delegation, led by \[_Generaloberst_ Alfred\] Jodl, finally arrived to sign the ‘instrument of surrender,’ as it was called, a few hours before dawn on May 7.”  Site of SHAEF, or Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, Reims, France, 1945. Ralph Morse—Time & LIfe Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Nazi Chief of Staff Jodi (center), summoned by Admiral von Friedberg, arrived at SHAEF after 5 p.m. Sunday. With his aide, Major Oxenius (right), he is ushered into a side room." Ralph Morse—Time & LIfe Pictures/Getty Images  The room in the "little red schoolhouse" in Reims, France, where Germany signed the Instrument of Surrender that ended the Second World War in Europe, May 7, 1945. Ralph Morse—Time & LIfe Pictures/Getty Images  Arranging the table in the "little red schoolhouse" in Reims, France, where Germany signed the Instrument of Surrender that ended the Second World War in Europe, May 7, 1945. Ralph Morse—Time & LIfe Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "The surrender room was SHAEF War Room, lined with operational maps, tables of casualties, supplies, Army strengths, prisoners. Pads, pencils and name plates were at each place." Ralph Morse—Time & LIfe Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Only ash trays, in two sizes, are out of line." Reims, May, 1945. Ralph Morse—Time & LIfe Pictures/Getty Images ![The Germans, Major \[Wilhelm\] Oxenius, Col. General \[Alfred\] Jodl, Admiral General \[Hans-Georg\] von Friedeberg march stiffly in under floodlights at 2:39 a.m. Monday, May 7. Von Friedeberg was coolest of three.](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d106356b2692365/698849ee06f2c1104b3397e1/07_00637496.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp) Caption from LIFE. "The Germans, Major \[Wilhelm\] Oxenius, Col. General \[Alfred\] Jodl, Admiral General \[Hans-Georg\] von Friedeberg march stiffly in under floodlights at 2:39 a.m. Monday, May 7\. Von Friedeberg was coolest of three." Ralph Morse—Time & LIfe Pictures/Getty Images ![Jodl, wearing Iron Cross low on his left breast, is seated between the major and admiral. With \[German Head of State Karl\] Donitz's authorization, he has nothing to do but sign the surrender.](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt62482565d414fab6/698849eecd6848eaa509f407/08_00637504.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp) "Jodl, wearing Iron Cross low on his left breast, is seated between the major and admiral. With \[German Head of State Karl\] Donitz's authorization, he has nothing to do but sign the surrender." Ralph Morse—Time & LIfe Pictures/Getty Images  German Col. General Alfred Jodl signs the Instrument of Surrender at Reims, France, May 7, 1945. Ralph Morse—Time & LIfe Pictures/Getty Images  Scene at German surrender in World War II, Reims, France, May 7, 1945. Ralph Morse—Time & LIfe Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "For Eisenhower, Chief of Staff Lieut. General Bedell Smith signs. At the left is Admiral Sir Harold Burrough, commander of Allied naval forces; right, Russian interpreter Cherniaeff." Ralph Morse—Time & LIfe Pictures/Getty Images ![For Red high command, Major General Ivan Susloparov signs, to be followed by French General Francois Sevez for \[Alphonse\] Juin, commander of French expeditionary forces. At right, \[American Gen. Carl Andrew\] Spaatz.](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt92bc4193e102a440/698849efcd6848ced609f40d/12_00637499.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp) Caption from LIFE. "For Red high command, Major General Ivan Susloparov signs, to be followed by French General Francois Sevez for \[Alphonse\] Juin, commander of French expeditionary forces. At right, \[American Gen. Carl Andrew\] Spaatz." Ralph Morse—Time & LIfe Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "After surrender, Eisenhower (right) seizes hand of General Susloparov and says, 'This is a great moment for us all.' But surrender announcement was held up for Moscow approval." Ralph Morse—Time & LIfe Pictures/Getty Images  Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower shares news of German surrender, Reims, France, May 7, 1945. Ralph Morse—Time & LIfe Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "In surrender room Eisenhower makes victory speech. Behind are flags of U.S., Britain. Eisenhower (five stars) and SHAEF. Eisenhower's biggest job had been done magnificently." Ralph Morse—Time & LIfe Pictures/Getty Images ![Eisenhower makes V with surrender pens, German and U.S. pen at right, Russian at left. With 'Ike': \[Chief of Staff Lieut. General Bedell\] Smith, Secretary Kay Summersby, \[RAF's Arthur\] Tedder.](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt339453eaca8e7f74/698849f1a988cadb716b1e54/16_00637534.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp) "Eisenhower makes V \[for victory\] with surrender pens, German and U.S. pen at right, Russian at left. With 'Ike': \[Chief of Staff Lieut. General Bedell\] Smith, Secretary Kay Summersby, \[RAF's Arthur\] Tedder." 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